Tide fans turn out for bowl

Friday

Dec 29, 2006 at 12:01 AM

By Lydia Seabol Avant Staff Writer

The game may have been in the middle of a weekday afternoon, but scheduling is nothing to diehard fans.At Buffalo Wild Wings in Tuscaloosa, a room filled with more than 250 people and 53 giant televisions resounded with cheers of “Roll Tide Roll" during Alabama’s bowl game against Oklahoma State Thursday.“We’ve been kind of overwhelmed -- it’s been busier than we thought it would be," said Charles Huff, owner of the restaurant.People started sitting down at the restaurant as early as two hours before kickoff. By 3:30 p.m., the parking lot was packed, with some fans parking cars on the grass, and other patrons walking from cars parked further down the street.Lance Willis and John Randle were part of a large group from Randall Reilly Publishing watching the game on one of the 9x6-foot projection screens. The group was mixing work and play by entertaining customers while watching the game.“I wish they would have played at 7 p.m.," Willis said. “It would have made it easier for the people who have to work and can’t watch the game."Randle agreed.“We have customers in town and can entertain and also support the home team at the same time," he said. “It’s good to live in a college town where you can do that.For Dana Mullenix and Anne Wicks, the game was worth taking time off work at DCH Regional Medical Center.“I think that it stinks that it’s in the middle of the day," Wicks said. “I feel sorry for those who can’t get off of work."The game was a family event for Scott and Beverly Ferrell and their son, Byron. The family usually goes to every home football game, some away games, and has attended bowl games in the past.But not this time.“If it hadn’t been in the middle of the week, we would have gone to Shreveport," Beverly Ferrell said.Instead, the family gathered around a restaurant table, all of them clad in their crimson gear.Across town at Wilhagen’s, the crowd of about 150 started to gather about 1:30 p.m., said Manager Kristin Mathes. The crowd, like the one at Buffalo’s Wild Wings, was laced with Alabama fans who took time off of work to watch the game.“It would have been much better for the game to be in the early evening," said Tom Sims of Longleaf Engineering. “Because of the bowl game, we had to shut the entire office down, and now we are all here watching it."At the Copper Top bar, people gathered in suits and ties, peering at the TVs above the bar and gathering around a grill outside. To attract more people, David White, who said he was a friend of the owner, stayed busy cooking eight slabs of ribs, six packages of sausages and about 30 bratwursts for the bar’s patrons.“We do it for free, for all the bowl games," White said. “We just do it for fun."But by 4:30 p.m. during the second quarter, people weren’t eating as much as White had hoped.“[The game] needs to be later," he said. “We’ve got a lot of food left."Reach Lydia Seabol Avant at Lydia.seabol@tuscaloosanews or 205-722-0222.